Fifty-one countries signed the Multilateral Competent Authority
Agreement in Berlin on Oct. 29 to fight offshore tax fraud and evasion.
The agreement aims to put an end to banking secrecy by sharing
tax-related information with member states.
Missing from the signatory list are the United States and China.
China’s absence seems somewhat strange given its global “fox hunt” for
corrupt officials who have fled the country.

Recently, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that based on purchasing power parity (PPP) calculations, China’s 2014 gross domestic product (GDP) will be $17.6 trillion, surpassing the U.S. GDP of $17.4 trillion.